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Back to Aydin Senkut: Growing Felicis from $4M to $4B, with Aydin Senkut.

Why Can One Big Win Make a Venture Investor Worse?

Aydin Senkut says a first big venture win can make an investor worse. An outlier success makes it feel as if whatever caused it will keep driving the next one, whether that was the dog in the office, the blue sweater, or the hot market. The rush feels invincible. Venture stays interesting because of high variability and outliers, so the thing that just worked, and the market that was hot, probably will not stay that way.

The reset he uses is the day after the win. Go back to the basics and drop the expectations that got you here, because they may not be the ones that move you forward. His picture for it is surfing. You ride an amazing wave, hit the beach, and paddle back out without knowing whether another big wave is coming. He thinks the best venture capitalists do exactly that. One thrill is not a permanent edge. You roll back and look for the next wave.

Transcript

Aydin Senkut: Growing Felicis from $4M to $4B ·

The Peel with Turner Novak

More from this episode

  1. What Does Felicis Look for Before Backing a Founder?Aydin Senkut says Felicis looks for a market every person or every business can use, and for urgency, before it judges the founder.
  2. How Did Aydin Senkut Get Into Shopify?Aydin Senkut got into Shopify after six months of work, emails included, and the six months did not start the day he showed up.
  3. What Is the Felicis Founder Pledge?Aydin Senkut says the Felicis founder pledge is a promise that the firm will never vote its shares against the founder.
  4. Why Did Aydin Senkut Start Felicis With Only His Own Money?Aydin Senkut started the first Felicis fund with his own $4 million because nobody wanted to give him money. He does not blame them.
  5. Why Were Felicis's Early Board Meetings So Brutal?Aydin Senkut's early Felicis board meetings were brutal because he asked the board to battle-test the fund with everything they knew about performing among…
  6. Why Should Founders Track Cash Runway?Aydin Senkut says founders should track cash runway, because a clock is ticking and a good-or-bad label only gets people stuck.
  7. Why Does Felicis Add Money After a Bad Quarter?Aydin Senkut says Felicis will sometimes put more money into a company after a bad quarter. Founders occasionally want to do something that sounds reckless.
  8. Does a Bigger Felicis Fund Lose Its Early Edge?Aydin Senkut says Felicis's latest fund is a little over $900 million, up from a $4 million start, and that the larger fund did not erase the early edge.
  9. Why Did People Say Google Search Would Never Make Money?Aydin Senkut says traditional people spent 10 years insisting that Google search would never monetize and would never become a real business that could make…
  10. Why Did Larry Page Duct-tape Google's Servers?Aydin Senkut says Larry Page refused to buy servers for Google.
  11. Why Do Silicon Valley Investors Miss non-Bay Area Companies?Aydin Senkut thinks Silicon Valley investors miss companies outside the Bay Area because backing the Silicon Valley version is much easier.
  12. How Did Canva Grow Sales a Thousand Times?Aydin Senkut says Canva sales rose a thousand times in eight years after the founders executed a simple product for people who want to create without feeling…

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